What Happened Today

When 19 terrorists hijacked four separate commercial flights, no one assumed they were going to commit a terrorist attack. Then, to the horror of the whole world, the hijackers steered the planes into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Western Pennsylvania. In all, the September 11 attacks would be the deadliest terror attack in world history and a moment that changed history. The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center would eventually collapse, creating massive destruction, not long after they were hit. In total, almost 3,000 people would be killed in the attacks, with nearly incalculable economic and property damage. Planes were grounded for days, the financial center of America was shut down, and buildings in Lower Manhattan besides the World Trade Center complex were destroyed. It became clear that the attackers were connected to al Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden. The September 11 attacks immediately led to the global War on Terror, beginning in trying to track down bin Laden in Afghanistan. Additionally, the government and society of America would be transformed. Eventually, the Bush administration would launch the Iraq War, while the way people lived, traveled, and behaved was forever changed.

"The Rough Wooing" was a conflict between England and Scotland that revolved around England forcing the Scottish regents to agree to have Mary, Queen of Scots, become betrothed to Edward, Prince of Wales, England's heir to the throne. Begun by King Henry VIII, the Rough Wooing also would have accomplished Henry's goal of forcing a Protestant Reformation in Scotland. After Henry's death, England too was ruled by a regent, as the new King Edward VI was just 10 years old. So in 1547, the two regents, England's Duke of Somerset and Scotland's Earl of Arran, faced each other in battle in southern Scotland. The battle was a decisive English rout, one that was said to see Renaissance English army destroy a more Medieval Scottish one. More significantly, it would be the last pitched battle between the Kingdoms of England and Scotland. Although England won the battle, their objectives from the Rough Wooing were not immediately met, as Mary, Queen of Scots, married the French prince, Scotland remained Catholic, and the two Kingdoms were not united. Yet in the long run, Scotland would have a Reformation itself that placed the young James VI, Mary's son, on the throne, and eventually he would succeed his cousin Elizabeth I of England, uniting the two Kingdoms in one crown.

The riot at Attica Correctional Facility in Attica, New York, would become one of the most well known prison riots in American history, but it really wasn't much of a riot. Prisoners managed to easily overwhelm their guards, take over the prison's control room, and hold 42 hostages in an exercise yard. At that point, the prisoners then listed a number of demands, all of which involved better conditions inside of the prison. The only odd part of the demands was a list of "vile and vicious slave masters." The negotiators got nowhere, however, and most notably, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller refused to come anywhere near the prison to participate in negotiations. Mostly, he wanted to end the standoff quickly, as it had become a national news story and an embarrassment for the state of New York. Four days after the riot initially broke out, State Police dropped tear gas on the prisoners and hostages, then opened fire with shotguns. In the takeover, 33 prisoners and 10 hostages were killed. It ended the standoff, but not without an unnecessary amount of violence and destruction.

President Gerald Ford did not grant a pardon to his predecessor, Richard Nixon, for any specific crime. Instead, Nixon was granted a pardon for "any and all crimes" he may have committed during his time as President. In reality, Richard Nixon was being pardoned for his involvement in the break-in to the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Complex during the 1972 Presidential Election and its subsequent cover-up. Nixon had not been indicted on any charges, but there were Congressional investigations and when the "Smoking Gun Tape," an audio recording where Nixon discussed the cover up with Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, was revealed, Nixon chose to resign rather than be impeached and removed from office. This thrust Ford into the Presidency, after he had been elevated to the Vice Presidency due to the resignation of Spiro Agnew. Ford's Pardon was done, in his explanation to the country, so that the Watergate investigations could finally and fully end. While they did stop, the stain of Watergate never went away, and Ford's pardon, on top of the Watergate scandal more generally, cost Republicans in the 1974 Midterm elections and Ford in the 1976 Presidential election.

Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Russia appeared to be going swimmingly for the Grande Armee through the summer months. The Russian Army kept retreating back towards Moscow, even if there were not many significant battles. If Napoleon had reached Moscow, he would have been able to make Russia yet another Napoleonic client state, just as he had done throughout Western Europe. After a skirmish at Smolensk, Russian Tsar Alexander I replaced General Barclay de Tolly with Mikhail Kutuzov, an older and more revered commander. Kutuzov decided to fortify at Borodino, west of Moscow. There, he had his men build a series of fortifications known as Bagration fleches, after the Russian general who created them and their arrow-like shape. They would make the Battle of Borodino the bloodiest battle of the Napoleonic Wars. The height of the battle took place at the Revsky redoubt in the center, seeing two armies destroy each other at the defensive fortification. The French would win the battle, but lose the war, as the Russian army managed to escape wounded but intact. Napoleon would take Moscow a week later, but it had been evacuated and was left smoldering, which forced the French to retreat through the Russian winter.

Immediately after Leon Czolgosz shot President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, it appeared that William McKinley would survive and that Czolgosz was only an attempted assassin. Czolgosz was an anarchist who desperately desired to shoot the President despite adopting anarchism only months before. He stood in a receiving line at the Temple of Music, a large concert hall, with a .32 revolver concealed in a handkerchief. Czolgosz was only able to fire off two shots at McKinley's midsection, because he was immediately knocked aside by African-American chef James Parker. Only one bullet entered McKinley, and he was alert and talking. Yet a week later, McKinley's wounds became gangrenous, and he fell deathly ill, passing away in the early morning hours of September 14. This now meant Czolgosz would be charged with murder, which he was convicted and sentenced to electrocution for just ten days later. Within two months, he would go to the electric chair at Auburn Prison. The assassination of William McKinley would then lead to the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt and a more official security role for the Secret Service.

The Treaty of Portsmouth ended the Russo-Japanese War, which Japan had already effectively won. In many ways, it was the end of a 19th century war, as the Japanese squared off against the Russians over colonial interests and largely settled the war in a series of naval battles. Yet the very fact that the Empire of Japan signed a peace treaty with a European power under the auspices of a U.S. President meant that the world was changing. Japan, which had been entirely isolationist and mostly feudal until 1869's Meiji Restoration, was now able to stand face to face against a colonial power on the world stage. The United States, and especially President Theodore Roosevelt, was also claiming its place as a world power. Russia, meanwhile, had already lost its fleet and now was forced to make territorial concessions at a negotiating table in Maine. The dissatisfaction with the Tsar's government would only grow in the years after the Treaty of Portsmouth. Meanwhile, Japan would expand its interests in China, and the United States took its place as a world leader.

Geronimo was one of the best Native American military commanders in the long history of the conflicts grouped together as "Indian Wars." Geronimo was a leader of the Chiricahua Apache, but he was never actually a chief. Instead, his raids against Mexican and American villages across the deserts of Sonora, Chihuahua, New Mexico, and Arizona were so successful, he gathered followers through his own military capabilities. After a massacre by the Mexican Army in 1851, in which his mother, wife, and children were killed, Geronimo began attacking Mexican villages relentlessly. By the 1870s, Geronimo began operating across the Mexican-American border. The US Army started following his band as well. Three times, Geronimo agreed to go on a reservation, and three times Geronimo led a "breakout" from the reservation. In 1886, it appeared Geronimo would surrender in Mexico to US Army General Charles Crook. Instead, he was told he'd be slaughtered by one soldier, and he broke out one more time. But he was leading a weakened band, and he couldn't keep going. Eventually, Geronimo would be forced to surrender to General Nelson Miles.

In 1967, the entire nation of Sweden switched, in one day, from driving on the left hand side of the road to the right hand side of the road. This switch was done for a few very practical reasons, like that most cars in Sweden were already outfitted with steering wheels on the left hand side. To make sure everyone knew what was going on, the Swedish government launched a massive campaign with advertising, branded merchandise, and even a pop song called "Håll dig till höger, Svensson," or "Keep to the right, Svensson." Despite these efforts, the decision to switch was not an easy one, as it was widely opposed throughout the nation. Under the 23 year leadership of Prime Minister Tage Erlander, Sweden pursued policies that allowed Sweden to forge ahead and remain neutral in the Cold War. Dagen H was a practical matter that was deemed a necessity for Sweden's growth and safety. It also was pulled off without any serious problems. Traffic was limited in the early morning hours of a Sunday, then all traffic stopped at ten minutes until 5 AM. All cars then switched sides and moved ahead on the other side of the road at 5. From then on, Swedes have driven on the right hand side of the road.

When Thomas Farrinor's bakery caught on fire, the danger seemed mostly to be confined to Farrinor's bakery and attached house. The way fires were fought was by demolishing houses in the path of the fire, creating fire breaks. Then, naturally, people opposed the destruction of their homes, and Lord Mayor of London Thomas Bloodworth dismissed the fire by supposedly saying "A woman could piss it out." The fire would become a massive conflagration that destroyed huge sections of the older portion of London inside the old Roman walls to the city. Tens of thousands fled the city, while the fire grew hotter and hotter. Most shockingly, three days after starting, the fire had spread to St. Paul's Cathedral, which many people thought would be a firebreak, but instead went up in flames, launching its stone work across the city. Along with St. Paul's, Bridwell Prison, three city gates, over 100 churches, and thousands of homes were destroyed. Some 70,000 people were displaced. The entire city, still getting used to the Restoration of King Charles II, found many things to be an appropriate cause, from God's punishment for the city's sins to foreign plots. In all, the Great Fire of London became one of the signature moments of Charles II's reign.